Thus it happened that Jim McGovern and Billy Waylett, after sauntering to the crossroads, which had been named as the rendezvous, and waiting until the rest of the pupils appeared, found themselves without their leader.
But they were not compelled to wait long, when the lad, who was older than they, was seen hurrying along the highway, eager to meet and explain to them the momentous business that had led him to call this special meeting.
"Fellers," said he, as he came panting up, "let's climb over the fence and go among the trees."
"Well, they won't hear us," observed Jim McGovern, "if we stay here, for we can see any one a half mile off."
"But they might sneak up when we wasn't watching," insisted the ringleader, who proceeded to scale the fence in the approved style of boyhood, the others following him.
Tom led the way for some distance among the trees, and then, when he came to a halt, peered among the branches overhead, and between and behind the trunks, to make sure no cowens were in the neighborhood.
Finally, everything was found to be as he wished, and he broke the important tidings in guarded undertones.
"I say, boys, are you both going to stick?"
"You bet we are," replied Billy, while Jim nodded his head several times to give emphasis to his answer.
"Well, don't you think the time has come to strike?"
"I've been thinking so for two--three weeks," said Billy.
"What I asked you two to meet me here for was to tell you that I've made up my mind we must make a move. Old Mr. Stearns, our teacher, is getting meaner every day; he gives us harder lessons than ever, and this afternoon he piled it on so heavy I had to stay after you fellers left. If Sam Bascomb hadn't sot behind me, and whispered two or three of them words, I would have been stuck there yet."
"He come mighty nigh catching me, too," observed Jim McGovern.
"You know we've made up our minds to go West to shoot Injuns, and the time has come to go."
The sparkle of the other boys' eyes and the flush upon their ruddy faces showed the pleasure which this announcement caused. The bliss of going West to reduce the population of our aborigines had been in their dreams for months, and they were impatient with their chosen leader that he had deferred the delight so long. They were happy to learn at last that the delay was at an end.